EVENTS: 2014 Nostalgic2Days, Part 01

Every year Nostalgic Hero magazine holds one of the very best classic car shows in all the lands, Nostalgic2Days. This is the sixth time they’ve held the event and for the past 4 years I’ve made the pilgrimage to Yokohama what classics Japan has to offer.

It’s only a four hour drive from Nagoya along the Tomei highway, but if you’re heading from Nagoya to Tokyo (or vice versa), be sure to take the Shin-Tomei Expressway. It just opened recently, is perfectly smooth, and affords some spectacular view of Mount Fuji (though, this year the iconic mountain was shrouded in fog).

Once arrived, we made a bee-line for the car I was most looking forward to seeing: Honda’s recently built replica of the S360 Concept. This was the car that paved the way for the glorious S500, S600 and S800 and it used the same 356cc DOHC inline-four found in the Honda T360 pickup.

The most amazing part about seeing the car in person was just how short the tail end was. It stops immediately after the rear wheels, looking just awkward enough to make me glad they made it a bit longer on the later iterations. Still, the craftsmanship was stunning and I just stood there drinking it all in.

Next up was the sublime Honda S800 RSC, another resident of the Honda Collection Hall at Twin Ring Motegi. We ran an a story about the car back in December of 2011 and if you haven’t heard the car’s engine in the accompanying video, I highly recommend giving it a listen just get a feel for how epic this car is.

After the Honda, we took a more systematic approach to the show, starting by the Takeey’s booth. Takeey’s, based in Hamamatsu, has one of the wildest and coolest collections of classics around. A quick browse through their website and you’ll find everything from a Nissan Pao to a 1937 V12 Cadillac. You’ll also find this works replica hakosuka for sale. It’s a stunning machine to say the least, and its L28 punched out to 3.1 liters coupled with beautiful Solex sidedrafts will sing you a song to end all songs.

Takeey’s also brings in American Japanese cars as well, like this left-hand-drive Honda N600E. Despite having the same external dimensions as the N360, the N600 has to wear a big boy license plate as the 600cc engine disqualifies it from the kei car status.

Next up was the Restored booth, which at first seemed to contain your standard yonmeri Skyline. The owner was quick to point out that this was not the case. Turns out, he produces wide-body surf line fenders (named after the upward crease across the rear quarter panels). Looking at it from a distance you get the impression that it’s a bit wider than stock, but when you look at the sill behind the door you can really see how much wider it is. On this particular car, only the driver’s side was widened so you could run back and forth checking out the difference between it and the stock passenger side.

Star Road has some of the best looking S30 Fairlady Zs in the country and I was drawn to the beautiful blue example like a mosquito to a bug zapper. The S30 wasn’t the only beautiful blue machine on display at the booth, though, and was matched by an equally stunning Skyline Japan. Of note, both the C210 and S30 are rocking the increasingly popular Glow Star wheels. Star Road also rocked a beautiful G-nose and an insanely aggressive yellow S30, which we saw in shell form last year.

Weaving our way through countless people and legions of stunning classics, we came to an annual favorite: the OS Giken booth. The S30 they had on display looked, from the outside, completely normal. Its real magic, however, was in the engine bay, which is simply a piece of art. The L-series motor was rocking the newest TC24 head, six individual throttle bodies and the craziest exhaust we’ve ever seen.

As you saw in the dyno pull video, this engine is putting out over 400 hp, and that’s out of a non-turbo block designed in the 1960s! OS Giken also showed a similar DOHC head for four-cylinder L series engines as well. It looks almost identical to the big six head, but with two cylinders chopped off, and rocks a nearly identical gear drive setup for the camshafts.

Garage Iwasa shows up every year and always has a beautiful Honda S-Car in tow. Even though they have a small presence at Nostalgic2Days, it doesn’t mean he can’t get his hands on some awesome metal. He specializes in lightweight legends, ranging from S800Ms to Lotus Elans.

The next row had a personal favorite of mine, Classic Car Nagoya. For those who aren’t aware, it’s a place where I spend far too much time and, on occasion, do some actual work. Because they’re located just 5 minutes drive from me, I didn’t snap any pics of the shop this go round (a separate shop visit article will soon follow). What I did pull some pictures of was the Mitsubishi Lancer rally replica parked right next to their booth and sitting pretty on its Advan Rally wheels.

That does it for Part 01 of our Nos2Days coverage. Stay tuned for Part 02. And in case you missed it, here’s the coverage from Nos2Days 2013 and 2011.

Very cool! “I highly recommend giving it a listen…” I like the style of JNCs and even the smell, but my favorite part has always been the sound. Not sure if it’s possible, but one or two of the pics having a button that plays a short audio file of the engine revving or running through the gears would be cool.